Wichita man sentenced for woman's stabbing death

A mentally ill Wichita man was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison for killing a woman he considered his grandmother.

Associated Press

A mentally ill Wichita man was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison for killing a woman he considered his grandmother.

Twenty-four-year-old Marrell Tisdale, a paranoid schizophrenic, was sentenced Friday for killing 69-year-old Gertrude Lott in February 2011. Prosecutors say Tisdale thought killing Lott would give him the strength to kill himself. He had a self-inflicted cut on his neck when police found him.

The Wichita Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/VzPujK ) Tisdale pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder in Lott's death and aggravated battery for attacking his mother with a meat cleaver the same day. The mother was not seriously injured.

District Judge Eric Commer said a Larned State Hospital psychiatrist indicated Tisdale's mental health issues could be managed in prison.